Facing the Truth
by acciodanrad9
Summary: Ron and Hermione have a budding secret romance, but when Harry discovers their infidelity he can't help but express his feelings in a letter to his two best friends.


**Disclaimer: **_Characters are not mine._

**Facing the Truth**

*******

_Dear Hermione and Ron,_

_I still remember the first time we met each other. _

_Ron, I remember talking to you about my so-called-family, which I had never done to anyone else before (even though whatever I said was minimal from what my childhood was really like). _

_Hermione, I guess the first time we met each other wasn't the best to start off with. At first I thought you were a bossy know-it-all. You may be a know-it-all, but in a good way. It's what makes you—you. You're the smartest witch of your age and I know you'll go far. Whether I see you succeed or not._

_I found it kind of ironic in fourth year, Ron, when you were jealous of me. Haven't you noticed I have been jealous of you since the first time I met you? You have everything that I have ever dreamed of since I was little. You have a family—a mother that loves you and will comfort you whenever you are scared or lonely. You have a dad that tells you that you will grow up to be a great wizard... I've never had that; in fact, I've had just the opposite._

_It's talking all my courage to say this but, here it is: I don't think that I could have survived these last five years without you. They haven't been the best for you either, having to tag along with me and getting into near death experiences. Maybe you would have been better without me. But, I can't say the same for myself. _

_I'd have to admit that I've noticed a difference between us three in the past few months, since we've started school. Maybe, you're just sick of me. But, I think it's also your new found romance with each other. Why didn't you tell me? Did you think I was that thick? With all the comments about you being busy and not wanting to go to Hogsmeade with me, it hurt. And, secretly, I see you there holding hands. It hurt; it hurt a lot. I feel like a third wheel. Haven't you heard the rude comments from Malfoy? The ones about us drifting apart—the ones about us not being 'the famous trio' anymore? Now, were just Harry, Ron, and Hermione. All those comments are true. Haven't you heard them? Malfoy knows what's going on and he's using it against us. Me._

_I don't mind your new relationship. I'm happy for you, really. I probably knew it was going to happen before you guys even knew it yourselves. But now I have no one to confide in, even though whatever I say to you may not think is telling you enough .It's a lot for me. I'm not use to showing my emotions. I don't think I ever will be._

_This year when I had to go back to Grimmauld place you knew it was hard for me. That had been Sirius's old house. When I got there no one said anything to me, they were all too busy. Of course, I got the normal hug from Mrs. Weasley, but, I couldn't find you guys anywhere. I secretly found you snogging in the attic. I never said anything. It wasn't my place. Or maybe I was too depressed to utter a single word. Not depressed that you were going out, but that I had to find out on my own. My two best friends had a secret they hadn't told me. You always told me never to keep my secrets and now look at you. You never did say hi to me, until dinner that is._

_All this ranting must have made you hate me more. I had to let it out. Like everyone tells me, "Harry you shouldn't keep your emotions bottled up all the time or you're going to explode." Maybe that's true, maybe someday I will break. But for now this letter is enough._

_Your friend,_

_Harry_

Harry lay his head down on his pillow in exhaustion, he had been sulking in here since Ron and Hermione had told him earlier that they were 'too busy' to go to Hogsmeade with him. Secretly, he knew they were going there without him. For some odd reason the whole Ron and Hermione relationship had really depressed today. He had come up here in a really bad mood and had written the letter, without even really thinking about it. He didn't intend to give it to them; they didn't need to know how he really felt. It just felt good to put his feelings somewhere, even if it was on a piece of parchment. With this thought he felt into a restless sleep, quill still in hand.

*******

"Ronald!" scolded Hermione as they both made their way into the common room.

"What?" asked Ron as his lips formed into a silly smirk.

"You can't be trying to kiss me while were entering the common room! What if Harry was in there? You don't want him finding out? Honestly!" reprimanded Hermione as they closed the common room door behind them.

"Oh, right, sorry."

Hermione glanced across the room, her eyes frantically searching for a certain black-haired boy. "Where do you think he is?" she inquired as they neared the couches.

"Maybe he's upstairs? Before we left that's where I saw him heading," mentioned Ron as he glanced up the boys' staircase, making sure Harry wasn't coming down the stairs.

"Should we go check?" asked Hermione as she started walking towards the boys' staircase, debating whether to go up and check on her friend.

"Yeah, wouldn't hurt."

They quietly arrived in the dormitory and both spotted Harry easily, lying on his four-poster bed. He looked to be sound asleep for once.

Hermione started to giggle when she neared Harry. "How adorable. It looks like he fell asleep doing some essay!"

"Probably Potions," muttered Ron quietly.

Hermione laugh diminished suddenly. "Merlin," she whispered as she picked up the piece of parchment and started to read it.

"What? What is it?" inquired Ron, wanting to know what Harry had been writing.

When she didn't respond, Ron looked over her shoulder, starting to read what her eyes were frantically going over.

"Did Harry write this?" questioned Ron in disbelief; he didn't know his friend as felt all these things without telling them.

"Yes," admitted Hermione sadly; it felt like part of her heart had been taken out. _Why didn't Harry tell us he knew? Why didn't he tell us that he felt we were drifting apart?_ She thought sadly to herself.

They were both too caught up in the letter to notice Harry roll over in his sleep; this movement caused his bottle of ink to fall off his bed, onto the floor with a loud crash.

Ron and Hermione jumped, looking around at what the source of the noise had been. They saw Harry shoot up from his bed looking terrified, having no idea what had just woke him up.

"Ron? 'Mione? What are you doing up here?" he asked sleepily, as he slowly sat up in his bed.

"Oh, we just came up here to see where you were," stated Hermione as she quickly tried to hide the piece of parchment from Harry, but she was too slow, and his eyes caught the parchment in her hands.

"What is that?" wondered Harry out loud as he tried to see what Hermione was trying to hid behind her back.

"Oh, this? I-It's nothing, really. Ron and I will just go and let you take your nap, okay," she replied quickly.

Before Hermione could start to leave, Harry quickly yanked the parchment out of her hands with no problem.

"How could you?" asked Harry now fully awake, glancing down at his letter.

Hermione glanced at Ron having no idea what to do in this situation, before glancing back at the hurt expression that was adorning Harry's face.

"Well you see, Harry," started Hermione as she went to sit down on Harry's bed, "we came in here looking for you, and, well, you had fallen asleep. We thought this was an essay. But, then we noticed it had our names on it. I didn't think you wouldn't want us to read it. We're so sorry, Harry, we didn't know you felt this way. Why didn't you tell us?" she pleaded.

Harry shook his head saying, "It's not important. This letter was never meant for you to see. I-I just wrote this stuff down to get it off my chest. None of this—" Harry stopped to angrily tear up the letter into tiny pieces—"is important. Just forget it. Forget everything I wrote. We can all be back to normal now," resigned Harry.

Hermione's eyes filled up with tears and Ron's face had turned an unnatural, pale white. They both couldn't believe their best friend had felt this way and never told them.

"Harry, mate, we should have told you sooner. It was our mistake. We're sorry," sighed Ron as he went to sit down onto Harry's bed.

"Haven't I told you? It doesn't matter!" demanded Harry as he got up from his bed and walked into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him clearly embarrassed.

Hermione got up giving a desperate glance at Ron, who just shrugged his shoulders having no idea what to do.

"Harry? Wait! Please let's talk about this," said Hermione desperately, hoping her friend was okay.

A few minutes later she heard a quiet, strained voice reply, "I'm fine, Hermione."

Hermione's eyes filled up with tears again, and not being able to control them, they began spilling down her cheeks. _What have Ron and I done? How could I have been so selfish?_ she thought to herself.

"Harry, come out and talk to us," asked Ron hopefully a few minutes later.

They heard some movement in the bathroom and hoped that Harry was unlocking the door, but they were wrong. Harry had just leaned against the bathroom door, resigned to stay in the bathroom until they left him alone.

"I-I can't. There's nothing to say. The letter was stupid. I've just made everything worse by making you guys feel guilty," replied Harry in such a guilty voice it made Hermione's heart break.

"Harry, what's wrong with expressing how you feel? We aren't mad at you at all. We're just upset with ourselves for not noticing the changes in our friendship," said Hermione, now freely crying.

"I-I just—when I was little I had no one to talk to and now that I've known you for five years I was use to confiding to you guys. Now, this year when you guys started to not talk to me as much—it just hurt to have no one to talk to. I don't want to go back to what it was like when I was little. I hated it then. I always felt so lonely and I hope that never happens again," responded Harry in a strained voice.

Hermione knew Harry was trying to not cry from the sound of strain in his voice. She sighed to herself; Harry had never said that much about his childhood to them before. The only thing they knew was that the Dursleys' hated him and that he had lived in a cupboard.

She glanced at Ron whose face was now paler than before they had started this conversation, before she could ask him if he was okay he started speaking to Harry, in a rushed tone, "Merlin, Harry! I'm so stupid. I've been jealous of you since the day I met you, but I never looked at the details. I just was jealous of the fact that you were 'The Boy-Who-Lived'. I'm sorry."

A few minutes later, the door opened to the bathroom and Harry stepped out. His face was blotchy red and his eyes where bloodshot anyone could tell that he had been crying. It looked like he had tried to wipe the evidence of tears away but it hadn't helped.

"It's okay. I-I just really don't want to lose you guys. You guys are my everything, no matter how cheesy that sounds," finished Harry, with a sigh as he looked down at the ground not wanting to meet his friends' faces.

"You won't lose us, Harry! No matter what happens. We'll always be 'the famous trio' no matter what Malfoy says!" said Hermione with a smile, while lifting Harry's head up with her finger to meet her eyes.

"Yeah, mate. You'll always be a Weasley even if you don't have red hair," said Ron in a tone that no one would argue with.

"Promise me that we'll always stick together," asked Harry as he glanced at Ron and Hermione, fearfully awaiting the answer.

"Promise!" said Ron and Hermione at the same time, while stepping forward and pulling Harry into a hug.

"Thanks. guys. Really, I couldn't have gone this far without you," said Harry truthfully, while hugging them back.

"We know Harry—we know," replied Hermione, not wanting to let go of the hug they were all in.

_Fin_


End file.
